Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

An additional person from Freeborn County has died from COVID-19, according to new data released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Health.

The person, who was between 90 and 94 years old, is the county’s 35th COVID death.

The department reported six new COVID-19 cases in the county, increasing the active cases to 44. The new cases included one person between 10 and 14, one person in their 20s, two people in their 40s and two people in their 80s.

Two new hospitalizations were also reported.

Cases are trending up in the county and the state, with 936 new cases reported statewide Wednesday. Five new deaths were reported.

No new cases were reported in Faribault County, eight in Mower County, 10 in Steele County and three in Waseca County.

Freeborn County Public Health posted on its Facebook page Wednesday evening that the county has been classified as a county with “high” level of community transmission of the COVID virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data tracker.

The transmission level looks at the total number of new cases for 100,000 people within the last seven days and the percentage of positive tests during the last seven days.

For a county to have a “high” transmission, it has more than 100 new cases per 100,000 population or a cumulative positivity rate greater than 10% in the past seven days.

Once counties reach that threshold, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health recommend that face coverings be worn in indoor public settings by all individuals — vaccinated or not.

The Health Department asked people to consider wearing a mask when in public indoor settings.

According to the CDC, 54% of Freeborn County residents ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated, and 58% have at least one dose. Almost 82% of people 65 and older are vaccinated.